Absolutely I would. Best money I ever spent. My bike has paid for itself 100 times over in terms of the time I would have spent sitting in traffic, being unable to find parking, saved insurance costs, saved gas/fuel costs, etc.
There is NOTHING more satisfying than commuting to work each morning casually zipping up the car pool lane at 70 while the cage drivers fume off to my right stuck in gridlock. Well, maybe splitting lanes casually on a bumper-to-bumper Friday afternoon commute. That's pretty satisfying as well. . .
Knowing I'm getting 40MPG without really trying and that I paid about 1/5 the cost of a hybrid econobox is pretty satisfying too.
Yes, it's a risk but one that's well worth it IMO. Todd obviously thought the same way. Many other friends of mine do too. It's absolutely, positively the right tool for the job of commuting in this hell-hole of a city (L.A., not Long Beach in particular).